Behavioral issues! PLEASE HELP

[Ruebensmom]

Hi everyone, 

My name is Lexy and I am a new owner of the cutest bun around. His name is Rueben and he is almost a year old Lionhead mix. Anyways I have a nice large two-story hutch for him that I keep in my room. It is equipped with its own bathroom, feeding area, and living room. I tried to train him to free roam my room but he pulled out about a 5X5 patch of carpet and continues to pull up the carpet. Lately, his newest thing is throwing himself around his hutch like a toddler, pulling on the wire, banging his paws against the second story, and violently shaking his toys. This happened all weekend between 8:15-8:30 making my boyfriend and I pretty ticked off. I fed him and tried to go back to sleep and when he finished eating he did the same thing all over again. 

Normally when I go to school I feed him around this time. So he may expect food at the same time every day. So from now on, I am going to try and just feed him his pellets and nuts in the evening with hay 24/7. I am not sure if this will resolve it or what but I guess we will see. 

I also bought bitter spray to spray on the wood in his hutch but that seems to not phase him one bit. 

1) How do I get him to sleep through the night and let me and my boyfriend sleep in peace

2) How do I get him to stop pulling up carpet? I’m in a rental for pete-sakes. 

[Carolyn]

I recommend giving him toys and things to do so he:s not bored.

Let him play outside his cage and run around right before bed so he’s pooped. They are morning (and night) animals, so you have to keep that in mind.

If he chews at the carpet, yell no and pound the ground once. If he goes back, do it again. If he stops and moves on, reward him with a treat. That’s how I trained my bun to not chew wires. It’s surprising how well it works. Won’t “cure” him from that because that]s his basic instinct, but if he has other things to do it might stick.

Him throwing himself around his hutch is him playing. That’s normal for a bunny. He probably need more time outside his cage.

His pellets and “nuts”, please don’t feed him nuts. They’re not good for a rabbits digestive system.

[sarahthegemini]

Rabbits are most active in the morning and evening/night so it’s important he is able to exercise and play at those times. How often and at what time do you let him out of the hutch?

Also rabbits like routine so feed him at roughly the same time every day. Speaking of food, rabbits should have plain pellets with no seeds/nuts in them so please transition him to a healthy pellet with no nuts.

Unfortunately a lot of buns try to chew carpet. To deal with this you could lay tiles down in his favourite chew spots or cover the carpet completely with different flooring. Not easy to do I know but it would save the carpet and still allow him to be free roam.

[Author]

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